I have been given the theme "The Message of History" today. A
message is delivered to a place and time. Our Creator has
delivered us to this day, through centuries of history, to begin
the year 2004 of the Common Era. We, our successes and our
failures, are a message people need to take to heart. I must be
brief, and I want to talk about the most serious religious
crisis of our time. It
is the rift that certain fundamentalists--Christians, Jews and
Muslims--are trying to open between Christianity and Islam, the
two largest religions on the planet. Sadly, some people are
seeking to foster hatred and religious war on both sides. The
sort of misinformation that is being disseminated among
Christians and Jews is quite alarming and distressing. Some of
it is outright falsehood.

For example, one thing you may hear today is that Muslims do not
worship God, they worship something else called Allah. But Allah
is simply the Arabic word for "God." It is closely related to
the word for God, Alaha, in Aramaic, the language that Jesus and
his disciples spoke, a language still spoken in a few areas in
the Middle East. If you are an Arab Christian, or Arabic
speaking Jew
or Muslim, you pray to Allah. To question that is like arguing
that French speakers don't worship God, they worship something
else called "dieu". Muslims worship the God of Abraham, Moses
and Jesus, and anyone who opens an English translation of the
Qur'an will see that.

Jerry Vines, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention, has
described the beloved Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, as a
"demon-obsessed pedophile." Franklin Graham, son of Billy
Graham, who also gave the invocation at President Bush's
inauguration, describes Islam as "a very evil and false
religion." Jon Hanna, an evangelical minister from Ohio who
edits Connection Magazine in that
state, also describes Islam as "false." He cited the 1st epistle
of St John (2: 21): "The one who denies that Jesus is the
Christ, he is the liar. He is the Antichrist." Mr Hanna then
concluded: "The Muslim religion is an antichrist religion."

Yet this is a barefaced lie. The Qur'an, or Recitation of the
Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, the holy book of Islam,
always refers to Jesus as "the Messiah." Christos or Christ is
only a Greek translation of the Aramaic and Hebrew word,
"messiah." The Qur'an also refers to Jesus as the word of God
and spirit from Him, born of the sinless virgin Mary, "purified
above all women," and it gives more space to Mary than the New
Testament does. I know a number of Muslims who ask "our Lady
Mary" for her intercession every day. There are several shrines
in the Middle East where Christians and Muslims honor Mary side
by side and ask her to pray for them. I have never heard, and
never expect to hear, any Muslim insult the name of Jesus. It
would be a rejection of what Islam has taught them, that he was
the promised messiah, that he ascended to heaven, and that he
will come again before the world ends.

Still another word you often hear is that Islam fosters hatred,
violence, and religious warfare. I want to spend a bit of time
on this, because it is so widespread a misunderstanding. Jews
are told to take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Christians are told that when smitten, they should turn the
other cheek-although I have met very few of them who actually do
that. Muslims on the other hand are told in their revelation to
resist oppression, even at great personal cost, because
otherwise one is only assisting the oppressor to oppress, and
God hates oppressors. This is basic to Islamic ethics, and we
need to understand it.

A related matter much misunderstood is the doctrine of jihad in
Islam. It means "virtuous striving," and that is a matter the
Qur'an lays great stress on.
"Did you suppose that you would enter Paradise without God
knowing who among you have striven and are patient?" (Qur'an 3:
147).

Living a good Muslim life, praying ritually five times a day,
keeping the hard fast of Ramadan, going on the arduous
Pilgrimage to Mecca, giving generously to the poor, rearing
one's offspring in the fear of God, is all of it a jihad.

"You shall believe in God and in His messenger, and strive with
your possessions and with your selves. That is better for you,
did you but know" (61:11).
"O you who have faith, fear God, seek means to come to Him, and
strive for His sake; so may you prosper" (5: 54).

The early Muslims had to strive also in battle against attacks
by their enemies. The Qur'an states the circumstances in which
and Islamic state ruled by Islamic law, or an imperiled Islamic
community, may resort to war. These are:

1. When there is a grave and sudden threat to religion. "And if
God did not repel some people by others, then cloisters,
churches, synagogues and mosques wherein God's name is much
remembered would have been pulled down. And surely God will help
one who helps Him, surely God is strong and mighty" (22:40).

2. When Muslims are subjected to oppression. "And what reason
have you not to fight in the way of God, and of the weak among
the men and women and children who say, 'Our Lord, take us out
of this city, whose people are oppressors. Grant us from Thee a
friend, and grant us from Thee a helper'" (4:75).

3. When Muslims are forced out of their land. "And fight in the
way of God those who fight against you, but begin not
hostilities. Surely God loves not the aggressors" (2: 190).
"Whoever retaliates with the like of that with which they are
afflicted and are again oppressed, God will surely help him"
(22: 60). "To fight in the Holy Month is a serious matter, but
to bar from God's way, and the Holy Mosque, and to expel its
people, is yet more serious in God's sight; the disorder is
worse than slaying" (2: 217).

4. When political entities commit deliberate breaches of
treaties and pacts.
"Those with whom you make an agreement, who then break their
agreement every time, and keep not their duty. If they break
their oaths after their agreements and revile your religion,
then fight the leaders of unbelief- because surely their oaths
mean nothing-so that they may desist" (9: 12).

Can you understand that in the eyes of many Muslims,
Palestinians (for an example) have now been put in that position
where they must resist? Suicide is forbidden in Islam, and very
rare in Islamic societies, but if one must sacrifice one's life
in order to help the oppressed (and when one reaches that point
is a matter of interpretation), most religions consider it an
heroic action.

Muslims are also explicitly instructed in the Qur'an that all
acts of war by them must cease immediately if their enemies sue
for peace, pledge to end persecution and oppression, and
sincerely undertake to abide by their oaths and covenants. "But
if they desist, then surely God is Forgiving, Merciful" (2:
192). "And if they incline to peace, then incline thou also to
it, and trust in God. Surely He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing "
(8: 61).

The issue of deterrence is also discussed in the Qur'an. "And
make ready for them whatever force you can, and [have] horses
tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of God, and
your enemy, and others beside them, whom you know not-God knows
them" (8-60). Thus Muslims are ordered to be ready for war, not
in order to start it, but to keep their enemy from disturbing
the peace.

So far as war for the propagation of faith is concerned, such a
thing is not mentioned even once in the Qur'an. This fact should
be a revelation for those who think that Islam requires its
followers to fight for the spread of their religion.

This is something we and our statesmen need to be aware of: over
a billion Muslims believe that they are divinely ordered to
refrain from aggression, and also to resist attacks and
oppression. Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion. If
Muslims continue to be misunderstood and slandered, they can
cause great pain to the world's societies.

John Alden Williams
Retired Wm R. Kenan Jr Professor of the Humanities in Religion
The College of William & Mary in Virginia.
The Tent of Abraham
Also read in " The American Muslim" " Blasphemy Before God: the
Darkness of Racism in Muslim Culture ".